It seems that minorities are under-represented in the Commonwealth of Virginia's "Gifted and Talented" programs, which is of course, grounds for great concern in the office of the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (and soon to be ex-Governor of said Commonwealth). And so, the state's Education Department is launching a study.
Yes--let's do increase diversity in the gifted and talented programs. Let's put some special ed kids in there--you know--to diversify the student body (every class needs a kid who eats paste). Let's put a few "C" students in there too, in order to prop up the flagging self-esteem of some of our G/T kids whose bumper stickers and Kaplan courses aren't enough validation.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
by Richard J. Herrnstein & Charles Murray
Kids who eat paste.
My boss wants to know why I spit coffee all over my computer display.
Thanks a lot.
Anyone hiring?
Arthur Almore of the Chesterfield County branch of the NAACP is also whining about the fact that the county schools seem to suspend minority special education students at a higher rate than white special ed students.
National Association of Always Complaining Pr!cks
Another example of the dumbing down of America. Lower the bar of excellence and everybody becomes special.
Never did like the participation trophy.
Maybe, just maybe there are some gifted kids of color that are getting overlooked?
If (and I can bet you all are saying, "BIG IF"), as a result of the study, they DO NOT lower the bar, but find out there are some gifted kids out there that previously went unrecognized for one reason or another, isn't identifying them likely to the good?
Anonymous-- If they locate some justly deserving gifted children of any race, color, creed, national origin or sexual preference. And if (a huge if) they do not as they have a tendency to do, lower the bar anyway in the interest of not injuring some undeserving student's "SELF ESTEEM" then we would all applaud the effort.
As a non-wahoo who tumbled to this post while researching the subject, here are a few quick thoughts -- (1) The Bell Curve was widely discredited for its methodology, (2) and more to the point: T&G programs have a long history of being filled with middle-class white kids who've reaped the advantages of their situation to perform well on the narrow means of assessment used by many of these programs but this isn't about adding "paste-eating" students as you suggest or self-esteem or any of the other red herrings tossed used in these discussions -- it is about identifying legitimately gifted children. Here's a quick factoid for your consideration: one way children end up in these programs is through nomination by parents and white middle-class parents who *know* about these programs are much more likely to nominate their children. (This has been documented in longitudinal studies.) If you don't know to seek out a program, you can't benefit from it. This is a hugely complex topic and it deserves a bit more seriousness, and respect, and not the rather interesting knee-jerk response in your post that immediately equated "minority" with "not smart." And, yes, this sort of attention to assessment will benefit working class (white) kids as well. Somehow I imagine you'll be more sympathetic to that population.
In addition...I've taught in T&G programs and know the means of assessment currently used to be highly suspect...there are some great students and some who are there because a teacher didn't know how to properly identify them and just picked a kid who was quiet/well-behaved. For those of us who've been on the inside, we already know the "gifted" population to be a pretty arbitrary mix so consider that a thorough reevaluation of assessment might (dare I say it) improve the pool of students by (dare I say it) including legitimately gifted students who the system currently misses. And won't it be nice for those students to then encounter people like this blogger who assume they are inferior. Who knows, if more varied assessments had been in place when you were going to school, you might have been identified as talented (if you weren't) or still identified (if you were)...or not. Keep shouting into the void, as will I...
What's wrong with eating paste? I've got a high IQ and I like paste... plain water-and-flour is the best!
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